In the clinic, we often hear the view that “OCD cannot be cured” and “OCD has to be treated for the rest of one’s life”, and even many doctors have argued that “OCD is unlikely to be completely cured. “, “treating OCD will bring a strong sense of frustration to the doctor”, coupled with the fact that the outpatient clinic for this disease takes a long time, many doctors are even reluctant to treat OCD, and some even tell patients directly that “this disease is not curable “. All of this has led to the widespread expression “OCD is a ‘mental cancer'” on the Internet. Is this really true? OCD is indeed an incurable psychological disorder, considered one of the top ten most disabling diseases in the world, causing huge financial losses and mental suffering to patients and families. If left untreated, OCD usually has a chronic course, with symptoms coming and going, with only about 5-10% of patients resolving on their own and another 5-10% experiencing persistent worsening of symptoms, and a small number of children and adolescents exhibiting episodes of the disease. Although the pathogenesis of OCD has not been fully elucidated to date, available treatments have been able to alleviate the symptoms of OCD to a large extent. Commonly used treatments include pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, or a combination of both, and a small but immature number of researchers have also tried treatments such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and deep brain stimulation (DBS). Data reported by clinical studies in various countries show that the overall effectiveness of treatment for OCD is about 40-60%, in other words about half of the patients lack efficacy. It should be noted, however, that most of these data come from randomized, double-blind controlled studies that use “standardized” treatment protocols to treat “standard” patients, which are often monolithic and do not individualize the protocols according to the patient’s symptom profile. These regimens are often single-issue and are not individualized and adapted to the patient’s symptom profile, and therefore may differ significantly from the true treatment effectiveness. The actual cumulative treatment efficacy rate for OCD exceeds 80% if the appropriate treatment regimen is selected according to the treatment guidelines and combined with the clinical characteristics of the patient, and if the treatment regimen is adjusted or changed in a timely manner according to the patient’s different treatment responses. However, most of these open studies also did not incorporate patients’ preferences for treatment methods, e.g., some patients wanted psychotherapy but actually received only medication. Our investigation showed that the consistency between treatment preferences and actual treatment regimens of patients with OCD has a very strong impact on outcome. Therefore, there is room for further improvement in the treatment efficiency of OCD if treatment plans are selected and developed based on individualized factors of OCD patients, including treatment preferences. In this sense, OCD is a treatable disorder that is far from being a “mental cancer. If this is the case, what are the reasons why OCD is “difficult to treat” in clinical practice? I believe that, in addition to the disease characteristics of OCD itself and the limitations of existing treatments, there are at least the following reasons: 1. The general public has very limited knowledge of this disorder. Many people know that they or a friend or relative has a “cleanliness problem,” or that someone can’t help but “double-check the locks” when they leave the house, or that a colleague repeatedly goes to the hospital to check for HIV infection because of “Islamophobia. Or, you may find that your friends always ask a meaningless question over and over again; however, most people never think of it as a mental illness, but often consider it as a personality or habit problem. 2. Low consultation rate of OCD: Many patients do not seek help from professional institutions in time after they learn that they may suffer from OCD. Some of them are reluctant to accept the fact that they have OCD, thinking that they will get better if they work hard; some want to go to the clinic, but they are worried about being considered “mentally ill”, i.e., they have a “sense of shame”. “Some people are prevented by their family members and believe that “compulsion” is a sign of weak will power and there is no need to see a doctor; all these lead to an average interval of 5-10 years between the onset of OCD and formal consultation. 3. Low recognition rate of OCD: Although OCD is a common psychiatric disorder, even psychiatrists have a worrying recognition rate of the disease compared to the popularity of schizophrenia and other serious psychiatric disorders. Psychiatrists generally do not misdiagnose typical OCD manifestations, such as repeated washing and repeated examinations, but the manifestations of OCD are complex and variable, and many patients will not be as typical as described in textbooks, plus the complaints at the initial consultation are not necessarily obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but may be emotional symptoms such as anxiety or fear, or bizarre behaviors described by family members, and many patients or family members even use a bit of incorrect medical Many patients or family members may mislead the physician with the wrong medical “terminology”, thus failing to correctly identify OCD. Considering the reality that many patients do not visit a psychiatrist for the first time, it is easy to understand the low recognition rate of OCD. 4. Inadequate availability of OCD treatment: The severe shortage of psychiatrists and qualified psychotherapists in China has resulted in a large number of OCD patients having difficulty obtaining professional help even when they have a clear diagnosis and are eager to get treatment. While it is easy for OCD patients to find the right doctor at the right hospital in large cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, the road to medical treatment can be extremely difficult for many patients in small and medium-sized cities or rural areas. This lack of treatment resources has led to the emergence of various false propaganda on the Internet, with “three-month cure for OCD” and other seductive advertising words, so that patients who are anxious to seek treatment are deeply affected by the waste of money, not to mention the damage caused to patients by the delay in treatment is huge. The direct result of the four aforementioned points is to significantly extend the time from the onset of symptoms to the effective treatment of OCD patients, and research shows that the longer this time is the worse the prognosis of patients. 5, treatment is not standardized: the treatment of any disease to obtain good results, are inseparable from the standard treatment plan, and the current domestic treatment of OCD is still not standardized. On the one hand, this irregularity is related to the clinicians’ unfamiliarity with OCD treatment, such as: inappropriate selection of drugs, or treatment drugs have been staying at low doses (OCD treatment usually requires high doses of drugs); on the other hand, many patients are unwilling to cooperate with the continuation of longer maintenance treatment after the symptoms have been relieved or reduced, leading to premature discontinuation of drugs or termination of psychotherapy, resulting in relapse of the disease (studies On the other hand, many patients are reluctant to cooperate with the continuation of maintenance treatment for a longer period of time, leading to early discontinuation or termination of psychotherapy, resulting in relapse (studies have shown that the relapse rate of OCD decreases significantly with the extension of maintenance treatment). Several national and international agencies have developed guidelines for the treatment of OCD, which have contributed significantly to the standardization of treatment. In summary, OCD is not a “mental cancer”, it is a treatable psychological disorder, and early diagnosis and treatment will greatly improve the symptoms and quality of life of patients.